


thank you

by rinthegreat



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, M/M, a little fluff, from a VLDprompt on tumblr, mostly pain, shangst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-29 11:01:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10852611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rinthegreat/pseuds/rinthegreat
Summary: promptsforvoltron asked for: "Lance getting thanked by a random alien and he just breaks into happy tears and the team is like ????”This is that, but with some Shance focus





	thank you

**Author's Note:**

> prompt from [this post](https://promptsforvoltron.tumblr.com/post/158656526543/langst-prompts). This was written all at once and was immediately edited and not betaed, so forgive any errors.

Lance turned when he felt the light tap on his shoulder.  It took him a second to remember that the Blevs were a lot shorter than humans and finally look down.  One of the small aliens was gazing up at him with a wide smile.  “Um...hi?”  His eyes darted around nervously.  Shouldn’t they be talking to Shiro?  Or Allura?

“Blue-One, I wish to thank you,” the Bleff chirped, still smiling up at him.

Lance blinked.  “Um...”

“Your bravery has freed us from a lifetime of servitude to the Galra,” they expanded.  Lance wished it wouldn’t smile so wide – it made him uncomfortable.

“Oh.  Uh, no problem?  You probably should be thanking Shiro though...or the Princess.  They’re over there.”  Lance pointed to the two in question, predictably surrounded by a mob of Blevs.

He checked around for the other paladins and found: Keith showing off his knife to a group of the aliens, Hunk giving several of them piggy back rides at the same time, and Pidge showing off Rover to a group of Blevian children.  Ah…he was the only one without other aliens all over him.  No wonder this Bleff had chosen to single him out.

“Say, I’ll pass the word onto them for you, ok?  Don’t worry.  They’ll be happy to hear it.”  He wasn’t lying – they would appreciate it.  Shiro and Allura took all the kind words from the citizens they freed to heart.

Finally, the Bleff stopped smiling.  Wait…  That meant Lance had offended them somehow.  Shit.  He wasn’t good at this whole diplomacy thing.  (Not that he was good at anything else.)

“No, Blue-One.  I wish to thank you.”

_What?_

“What?”

“You were the One who shot the Galra holding me captive, were you not?”

And that…that did ring a bell.  There had been one Galra intent on staying and taking down as many of the Blevs as he could.  He’d even grabbed one as a captive, threatening to slit their throat unless the Paladins backed off.

Lance hadn’t even thought when he’d pulled the trigger.

Now all he could think was _oh, they remembered me._

“Yeah, I was.”  He couldn’t help but give a small smile at that – pleased he’d done something right.

The Bleff dropped into a low bow.  “I am Ver, a lowly senator for the Blevian Republic.  Thank you for saving me, Blue-One.  I will be forever in your debt.”

Lance meant to say something along the lines of _no problem_ or a more Allura approved _just doing my duty as a Paladin of Voltron_ but he couldn’t speak past the lump that had suddenly formed in his throat.

“Blue-One?”  A blurred Ver straightened up from their bow.  They looked horrified.  “Oh.  I apologize.  I did not mean to offend.  Please, excuse me.”  They stammered out, backing away.  Ver turned and darted into the crowd, shooting one last worried glance in his direction before disappearing.

Confused, Lance lifted a hand to his face as the world blurred around him.  His fingers came away wet.  Oh.  He was crying.

He shouldn’t be crying.  Keith certainly wouldn’t be crying.  Keith got thanked on every planet they landed on – not that Lance eavesdropped – and not once did _he_ shed a tear over it.  Honestly, this was pathetic.

“Lance?”  Shocked at the sound of his name, he blinked the tears away and saw Coran standing in front of him.  “Is everything ok?”

Coran had been there for the original Paladins.  He’d seen war and slept for 10,000 years, only to wake up to learn everyone he’d ever known had died.  Being thanked for doing his job wouldn’t be enough to make Coran cry either.

Lance fled.

He hid out in the castle, going to his favorite observation deck.  They were still grounded, but as night fell over the planet Lance got an unobscured view of stars.  (Stars so very different from the ones back on Earth but somehow just as calming.)

He thought he was alone until a person dropped to sit next to him.  He flinched, eyes darting over to see the sight of a metallic hand resting awkwardly on black pants.  Shiro.  They sat in silence for a few moments, Lance trying to calm his heartrate, before Shiro finally broke it.

“Ver came to apologize to me.  I assured him that you weren’t offended, and that we were all grateful to hear his thanks.”

Lance didn’t say anything.

“I want you to know that you can talk to me about anything.”

Silence.

Shiro sighed.  “I know it’s not my place but…I remember them too.  The face of every Galra or alien or…whatever I faced in the arena.  They’re our enemies, yes…But you’re also not weak for wishing you hadn’t been the one to…end their life.”

The heartfelt confession did nothing to make Lance feel better.  On the contrary, guilt bit into him instead.  What Shiro had said, what he thought Lance had been crying about, was a better reason for Lance to have broken into tears than…

He didn’t even want to think about it.

“Lance?”

Silence wasn’t working anymore, so he shook his head.  “It’s fine.”

“No, it isn’t.  You didn’t even stay for the feast – Ver thought he’d ruined the planet’s chances to join the Alliance.”

Lance snorted.  That just made him feel _even worse_.  “Look, it’s not the killing thing, ok?  And I wasn’t offended so you didn’t even lie.  Just _leave it_.”

Shiro’s hand moved to rest on his shoulder, a true Leader Move.  Lance wanted to vomit.  “Lance, tell me what’s going on with you.  You’ve been getting more distant lately…I just want to help.”

“Fine!”  Lance threw the hand off his shoulder and leapt up.  “I was happy alright?  I was happy and it was embarrassing and I _left_.  Ok?  There.  You did your job, now go back to everyone else and leave me alone.”

Shiro’s eyes were wide, mouth half open in shock.  Not wanting to give him the chance to register what he’d just said, Lance turned and stormed away.

Well, he tried.

All too quick, Shiro’s hand reached out and wrapped around Lance’s arm, pulling him short.  He tugged at it experimentally, but Shiro didn’t let go.

“Let go.”

Now Shiro was the one being silent.  Great.

“I said let me go!”

“Tell me why you were crying.”

“I just _did_.”  Lance tugged again.  “Come on, why can’t you drop it?”

“Look at me.”

“No.”

“Lance.”

There was a quiet request in Shiro’s voice, not a demand like he’d expected.  It made Lance curious enough that he finally turned and looked Shiro in the eye. 

“Happiness isn’t bursting into tears and running away,” Shiro told him calmly.

Lance was having a hard time looking at him.  He stared at the fingers wrapped around his arm instead.  “It’s stupid.”

“Try me.”

“It’s embarrassing.”

“When I was thirteen I made up an entire musical about how I was going to get into the Garrison.  Matt filmed it and sent it to all our friends, and they kept calling me Sondheim up till the day I left for Kerberos.”

Lance’s eyes whipped up to meet Shiro’s again.  “What?”

“I told you something embarrassing.  Now it’s your turn.”  He smiled, soft and fond.

Fuck it.

“I…I did something right.  Ver came up and thanked me for saving him because I took that shot and it actually worked.”  He swallowed, but Shiro didn’t interrupt.  “I’ve never been thanked before.  Usually it’s you or Allura or Keith or Hunk or Pidge or even Coran.  The aliens all come up to you and they’re so happy you saved them and they thank you all and I’ve never –” He took a breath, calming himself down again.  “I’ve never been thanked before.  I’m usually the fuck up or the stand in or the guy who makes stupid jokes.  I couldn’t believe I’d done something right for once.  And then he ran away because I was crying and I…you guys never cry when someone thanks you.  It was embarrassing.”  He trailed off lamely.

Shiro’s grip finally slackened and Lance took his arm back, cradling it to his chest for something to hold on to.  He was close to tears again, embarrassingly enough, but more than that he was too terrified to move until Shiro told him he could leave.

This was humiliating.  The worse thing he could imagine.  He’d been forced to admit that he’d gotten so worked up over something so _normal_.  A part of their jobs he should’ve had from the beginning, like everyone else did.  He was just so bad at it that he’d never been able to enjoy the perks before now.

But then his vision was completely obscured by black, a firm pressure on his back and around his sides.  Shiro was hugging him.

Lance choked out a sob, unable to keep it in anymore.  “Sorry.  I –“

“No…shh…Lance.”  Shiro’s voice was muffled, barely more than puffs of breath in his hair.

He quieted down immediately.

“Thank you,” Shiro whispered.  “Thank you for saving me back on Earth.  Thank you for piloting Blue and bringing us to Arus.  Thank you for saving Coran when the Galra blew up our crystal.  Thank you for taking care of Hunk when we were all separated.  Thank you for befriending Keith.  Thank you for believing what I told you about my escape.  Thank you…”

Lance cried his way through Shiro’s list, listening to him go on and on.  It was embarrassing, but at least Shiro couldn’t see his face.  He lost track of what Shiro was saying, focused more on the sound of his voice and the two words _thank you_ than the details.  Eventually he ran out of tears, content to let himself be held and appreciated.

“You’re not a fuck up, Lance,” Shiro told him once he’d exhausted things to thank him for.  “You’re not a stand-in for anyone.  And your jokes are pretty stupid, but I think they’re funny.  It’s been a long time since anyone’s made jokes around me.  Even at the Garrison people took me too seriously.”

“What about the friends who called you Sondheim?”

Shiro chuckled.  “I’m gonna regret telling you about that, aren’t I?”

“Probably,” Lance agreed.  He pushed his hands out from where they were trapped between their chests and wrapped his arms around Shiro instead, not wanting to let him go.  “Thanks,” he murmured, “for saying all those nice things.”

“They’re true.”

Lance nodded, not really believing it.

Shiro pushed him away until they were able to make eye contact again.  “I’m serious, Lance.  Every word.  You’re _meant_ to be here with us.  We literally don’t stand a chance without you.”

“Did you…is that a pun?”

Shiro smiled at him again.  “You got that _right_.”

“Oh my god…”

“What?  _Blue_ your mind?”

Lance couldn’t stop himself from smiling too.  “You really should leave the joking to me.”

“Only if you promise to come to me when you’re feeling like this,” Shiro insisted, serious tone back in his voice.  He really was a good leader – he knew exactly what to do to cheer Lance up.

“I don’t know,” Lance told him honestly.  “It happens a lot.”

“Doesn’t matter if it’s 3 am and I’m asleep.  You have full permission to wake me up and make me tell you all the things you do right.”

Lance hesitated.

“Please?  Trust in me, Lance.”

“…Alright.”

The memory fades, the bright Blevian stars dissolve into black space outside his bedroom window.  The joy of being thanked for a job well done, for having Shiro tell him his worth, for being _held_ by Shiro at all…it’s all gone.  Disappeared with the Black Paladin himself.

Lance holds Shiro’s Bayard in both his hands, cradling it as gently as Shiro had cradled him on that planet.  He’d cried himself out the first week, and now all that’s left is emptiness.  No news, no word of where Shiro’s disappeared to in almost a month.

“I trusted you,” he whispers to the Bayard, dropping his head to the metal.  It’s not Shiro’s hand, not even close.  “Please come back.”


End file.
